“Superdiverse” Neighborhoods, Children’s Friendships, and Schools’ Friendship Policy Practices

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Studies of Ethnic Diversity in Education

Abstract

This paper reports on a project exploring the friendships of children and adults in ‘superdiverse’ (Vertovec 2007) localities in London, England, which examines whether and how friendships are made and maintained across ethnic and social class differences. The aim is to identify what friendships reveal about the nature and extent of ethnic and social divisions in contemporary multicultural society. Drawing on qualitative data provided by children’s interviews and drawings, and interviews with their parents and teachers, this particular paper focuses on two aspects of the wider research. The first is an exploration of the informal emotional worlds of children in diverse schools, and the second, teachers’ interventions in those worlds, in order to support the development of positive heterogeneous relationships.

Authors

• Carol Vincent, Institute of Education - London

• Sarah Neal, University of Surrey

• Humera Iqbal, Institute of Education - London